Wikia Rules and Regulations
Hello and welcome to the Pinball Wiki, a comprehensive database regarding the silver ball. To keep the wiki informative and friendly for everyone, please read and follow the below policies. These cover things ranging from basic editing etiquette to common courtesy. Any failure to heed these rules will be addressed and dealt with appropriately. Be advised that below policies are subject to change, especially as the wiki's organization and style become more defined. Please relay all questions and concerns to Multibrawlr, the current admin of this wiki. What Pinball Wiki is and isn't Pinball Wiki is ''a place to document information about the following: *'Gameplay mechanics', '''rules', playfield design elements, the development/production cycles of both physical and digital pinball machines. *Significant people '''in the industry, including '''design team members and notable professionally-ranked players. *The history and evolution of pinball as a whole. *Notable pinball websites, forums, newsletters, podcasts, and other forms of pinball-centric media. Pinball Wiki isn't ''a place for: *'Submitting high scores, either personal or from actual tournaments. This just clutters up the page and would require proof anyway. Pinside has a function to report high scores--you should go there if that's what you'd like to do. *'Providing technical advice. '''At this wiki's current state, we're shying away from technical advice until the wiki and its organization is more polished. There are already websites that document these kinds of things. *'Self-promotion or creating an article about yourself. '''Please see the Notability Guidelines. User Conduct General # '''Respect administration staff and fellow editors. Trolling, insults, threats, or any other toxic behavior will not ''be tolerated. # '''Communicate.' Please check your talk pages for messages, especially those from our administration team. Additionally, if you see a problem (be it from another editor or the wiki itself), please do not hesitate to contact an admin. Vandalism Vandalism involves user actions which deface the quality and integrity of this wiki, such as: * Spamming advertisements and website links. * Replacing words and names with irrelevant content. * Creating pages to post random/vulgar content. * Removing all content from a page, often without explanation. Contributions determined to be vandalism by administrators will be reverted. There are no warnings given for vandalism--a user will be blocked for varying amounts depending on the infraction. Accounts # Per FANDOM's guidelines and the law of COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), all users must be ages 13 or older before making an account. Users found to be underage will be banned until they are of age. # Only verified FANDOM accounts may contribute. '''Due to vandalism and the current state of the wiki, I'm disabling anonymous edits for now. # '''No sockpuppeting. '''While there are valid reasons for having multiple accounts, it's best to have one editor per account. Abuse of multiple accounts -- including to evade sanctions and blocks -- is unacceptable. # '''Keep account customization appropriate. '''Profile pictures, pages, and usernames must not have any vulgar content. # '''Don't impersonate administration staff. This includes falsely categorizing yourself as a bureaucrat, admin, or other user who has been granted certain priveledges. Wiki Content General # Provide valid sources to information whenever possible. Some sources we'd appreciate include interviews and book/magazine excerpts. # Maintain good spelling, punctuation, and grammar. # Write from a neutral perspective. Please don't shoehorn your personal opinions into a page. Either take it to the comments (respectfully) or a different site altogether. # Please refrain from linking to pages that don't exist. Only link if you intend to add relevant content. Images These policies are to keep our image library clean and organized. # Screenshots, official art, concept art, print media, and other pinball-related material pertinent to a page's subject are welcome. # Check for duplicate images. '''If there are multiple images that are the same, the lowest-quality ones will be deleted. Uploading a better-quality image of one currently on the wiki is welcome, but please inform an admin. # '''Images of poor quality, including those that are too small or blurry, will be deleted. # Write clear filenames. '''Filenames with gibberish look messy and are difficult to search for. # '''Categorize images. # No explicit or sexual (NSFW) imagery. All pornography and NSFW fanart is forbidden. # No fanart. Notability Guidelines As the pinball world grows, inevitably so will this wiki. However, some topics have very little information, in turn increasing the number of short (stub) pages. This begs the question: are they are notable enough to be included here? The answer tends to be "No", and such pages will be deleted. General rule of thumb to prove notability is to include a significant ''number of sources. Also, depending on the subject of the page, we have different guidelines: Machines * All physical and virtual machines are welcome because they generally have lots to discuss (rules, features, developmental information, trivia, ect.) Manufactures * Both major and boutique manufacturers are to be included, along with manufacturers that failed to release pinball machines (Zidware, Skit-B Pinball, ect.) People * '''Industry figures: '''Most programmers, artists, designers, CEOs, and other significant figures involved in the pinball manufacturing industry can get their own pages, although some might have more information than others. * '''Players: '''A player must have gained notability/significant media coverage from their accomplishments, or helped change pinball or the industry with their actions. It also helps if they work at a pinball manufacturer (e.g. Keith Elwin works at Stern Pinball, Bowen Kerins works at Spooky Pinball). * '''Collectors: '''Generally won't be included, unless there are enough sources to prove that this collector is significant enough to be discussed on the wiki. We kindly ask that if you are one of the above people and don't fall under the criteria, please don't make a page about yourself. However, feel free to customize your user profile page. No disrespect is intended--this is only just to make sure we're filling pages and it's less of a nightmare to sort through all the stub pages. Penalties * '''First Strike:' The offender will be notified and given a friendly warning, as well as a link to this page to refresh any memories. For first offenses, if you feel that the warning is unjustified, don't be afraid to plead your case with a reasonable response, and it will be considered. * Second Strike: The offender will be given a more serious warning, along with the threat of a ban. * Third Strike: The offender will be banned for a week. * Fourth Strike: The offender will be banned for a month. * Fifth Strike: The offender will be banned permanently. Category:Policy